BICS Debate

Machine Consciousness: Does it Make Sense?

Following a series of meetings in the US and Europe on 'Machine Consciousness' and funding organisations gearing up to create programmes in this area, a debate involving the audience is being planned. The discussants will include:

Dr Owen Holland of Essex University who has begun an EPSRC (UK) programme of looking at consciousness in the context of designing Robots;

Professor John Taylor (abstract)of Kings College, London, who takes an analytic approach to grounded neurological data;

Professor Igor Aleksander (abstract) of Imperial College, London who has developed a theory of minimal properties required by a mechanism to support conscious sensation;

Dr Mark Bishop (abstract) (full paper) of Goldsmiths College, London, who takes a philosophical view of the question and forsees pitfalls.

Note that the debate is scheduled just before lunch, so that discussion can carry on into lunch!